Woman of the Century/Kate Smeed Cross

KATE SMEED CROSS. CROSS, Mrs. Kate Smeed, social leader, born near Philadelphia, Pa., 18th November, 1859. In 1869 she went with her parents to reside in Lawrence, Kans., where the next seven years were spent in school and studying in the University of Kansas. In 1876 she returned to Philadelphia and devoted herself industriously to the study of music, art and the great exhibition. In 1880 she returned to her Kansas home and in that year became the wife of Charles S. Cross, a banker and business man of Emporia, Kans., where in their charming home, "Elmwood," Mr. and Mrs. Cross, with their little daughter live and dispense hospitality. Nature has endowed Mrs. Cross with large gifts, and these gifts are ever made to administer generously to the welfare of those about her and to the help of every good cause. She is an efficient officer of nearly every art, musical and literary circle of Emporia and is a staunch church woman, a member of the Episcopal Church. Some of the finest classic musical entertainments given in Emporia have been given under her direction, she herself taking leading parts in such operas as the "Bohemian Girl " and showing herself possessed of histrionic ability.